


Fade In The Dark, Burn As Bright

by Morpheus626



Category: Queen (Band)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:08:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26437708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morpheus626/pseuds/Morpheus626
Summary: Written for my DL server Bingo Card prompt: Post-Apocalyptic Horror.Honestly? Didn’t think I’d be able to complete this one. But I got stuck on a different prompt, and now here we are. Didn’t intend for this to be multi-chapter, but that also just sort of happened if I’m honest. And yes, the title are from lyrics by MCR lol. It fits the fic, and I’m still a goth/emo kid at heart, I guess.Set somewhere in 1978, in (obviously lol) an AU where the world has ended.How and why that happened, as well as the how and why they survived it, aren’t so simply discovered.But what else is there to do after the apocalypse, except look for answers?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10
Collections: Dork Lovers Server Challenges





	Fade In The Dark, Burn As Bright

“You know what I hate most about the end of the world?” Roger shouted, his voice echoing in the street, empty except for them. “Too bloody quiet. Never thought I’d miss the noise. But I do! What a fucking joke.” 

“Please be quiet,” Brian sighed and turned back to look to Roger. “We don’t know who else is here.” 

“No one!” Roger shouted again, gesticulating towards the broken and buckled buildings, their fallen bricks strewn in the street. “No one is here, because everyone else is dead!” 

“We don’t know that,” Freddie turned his head back towards them. “We need to be careful.” 

Roger kicked at a brick, and winced as he made light, but thankfully not full, contact with it. “The world ended, and there’s still rules to follow.” 

“Not rules, just...considerations,” Freddie said. “We don’t even know what happened for sure.” 

“I think it must have been a nuclear bomb,” Brian said. “Look at everything, what else could it have been?” 

“How did we survive it then?” Roger asked. 

“Got lucky?” Brian shrugged, skipping around a pile of bricks as they walked on down the street. “Or rather, unlucky. We might be dead within the next few days, or weeks, if I’m right. Depending on where it fell, would say as to how fucked we are.” 

“Well, that’s lovely,” Roger scoffed. “Here I was thinking just a regular bomb. What about you two? Any ideas?” 

Freddie shook his head. “I don’t want to think about it right now.” 

“We can’t just go on not knowing,” Roger said, then frowned at the pained look on Freddie’s face. “Though, it could wait until we’re somewhere settled and safe.” 

“Aliens,” John said. 

“Deaky,” Brian sighed, exasperated. “Even if that was the case, what reason do you have for thinking we’d be destroyed by them right away?” 

He shrugged. “Boredom? A need and will to blow shit up?” 

“Speaking of,” Brian said, and swallowed hard. 

They had reached his home first, the one he shared with Chrissie. 

It was in pieces, and there was no one outside of it. 

“We can search with you,” Freddie tried, but Brian shook his head and strode towards the rubble on his own. 

“He’ll need our help,” Roger whispered to Freddie. “Whether they’re alive or not...” 

“I know,” Freddie said. “Give him a moment.” 

Brian moved bricks as quickly as he could, but it was a fruitless search. 

“No bodies,” he said shortly as he returned to them. “Not that I could see anyway.” 

“Maybe they weren’t home,” Freddie murmured, and rubbed at Brian’s back. “Or they got out, and are like us, looking for others.” 

Brian shook his head, and it was evident he was fighting back tears. 

“I’m fine if we don’t head to mine,” Roger said. “Can’t imagine it looks much different.” 

“But your mum,” Freddie started, then paused. “She’s fine. Probably out looking, like Chrissie and James.” 

Roger nodded sharply, and they continued on. 

“Do you want to check on your parents, Fred?” John asked. “Equal distance to mine or theirs...” 

“Yours first,” Freddie replied. “I’m sure they’re fine too. They’ll be glad to see me, but they’ll laugh if they know I worried about them.” 

The streets passed, empty and silent, aside from moments where bits of broken walls crumbled, and they passed the occasional fire, the sound of it whipping on the wind shiver-inducing. 

John’s home was at least still mostly standing, but the door fell in as John went to open it. 

He was in for only a few moments, before returning to them on the street. 

“Wish I’d been home,” he muttered. “No offense to all of you, of course-” 

“I’m so sorry,” Freddie said, and wrapped John in a hug, but John shook his head. 

“No, they aren’t there,” he said. “I mean, they could still be-” 

His lip quivered exactly once, and he ran a hand down his face, streaking dirt over it. “But maybe they’re okay. Out there, somewhere.” 

They were all a mess, even before they had left the lot where the studio had once stood. It had a few walls left, but most had been destroyed, and it was seemingly a miracle that they hadn’t been crushed under any of them. 

It left them covered in dirt and streaks of who knew what else, and there didn’t look to be the opportunity for a shower or bath any time soon. 

“Getting cold,” Freddie remarked, shivering as they kept on. “Should see if there’s anything left at my parents’ that we could borrow.” 

“Maybe their house is standing enough we can stop for the night,” Roger said, rubbing at his arms. “Has to be warmer in there, even if the heating isn’t working.” 

“It’s only September, it won’t get much colder,” Brian said. “If we must stay out here all night, I mean. It’s manageable.” 

The house was standing, but it creaked and moaned as they walked inside with Freddie, at his insistence. 

“No one,” Freddie sighed as he met them in the sitting room, after searching as much of the house as he dared. “But there’s suitcases gone.” 

“That’s good,” Brian said, relief in his voice. “We might run into them if we keep going.” 

“Unless they went the way we just came from,” John mused. “But we might have seen them already then, and we didn’t...” 

They all stood, feet shuffling. 

“Think it’s sturdy enough to stay in?” Roger asked, looking to the walls of the house. There were some cracks, but they were upright at least. 

“Maybe if we stay in here,” Freddie said. “That way, should anything come crashing down, we can run out.” 

“Could take turns standing watch,” Brian added. “For crumbling walls, or anything else.” 

“We haven’t seen or heard from anyone else,” John said. “Nothing is going to come in and get us.” 

But even he looked nervously to the front door, as it swung when the wind came up, and he helped to move the couch from the sitting room to barricade it. 

\---

He volunteered for the first watch shift only because he couldn’t sleep. The idea of even trying to sleep was abhorrent. He didn’t know where his parents and sister were, alive or dead, and the thought that they could be nearby, maybe hoping he would happen by and be able to help them...

The tears stung, with the dirt and muck still on his face and around his eyes, and wiping them away only made it worse. 

But he didn’t want to wake the other three, though they seemed pretty dead asleep. Brian, Roger, and John, all in a little pile too, draped right by each other on the floor of the sitting room, for warmth. 

And because they were scared, but no one wanted to say that bit out loud. Not yet, at least. Holding off on saying it meant the world might somehow turn back towards ‘normal’, to safety. 

It was a falsehood, but it was hard to let it go when there was nothing else to hang onto but each other. 

They hadn’t even touched on the other important issues: food, water, washing up. There was some food left in the cupboards here, but they needed to find ways to carry it and keep it safe while they traveled. It would only last so long too. 

Water was worse; what working taps could be found gave off water that didn’t seem bad, but there was no guarantee of how safe it was to drink or use for anything else. 

All he wanted was a warm, decent meal; clean, cold water; and a nice bath. If he couldn’t know that everyone he and his friends cared for were safe, he at least wanted those basic comforts. 

Instead, he stood and paced through the house more, looking for anything they could use to carry food and supplies, and for anything that he could take from the house. 

Not anything big. Just a few things that he could carry with, and make sure to return to each of his family members once he found them again, somewhere along the road. 

Because he would. Surely, he would.

\---

“Hour went fast,” Roger mumbled as Freddie woke him for his turn at watch. 

But he switched spots with Freddie quickly, and settled for staring down the door. 

“I know there’s no one else out there,” he whispered. “We’d have seen someone by now. We would have, I’m sure of it.” 

He wasn’t as sure as he wanted to be though, and that was the worry wringing out his brain. What if there were people, half-alive, stuck in the rubble of the homes they’d passed? 

Reasonably, he knew they couldn’t have stopped to check every house. Even if they’d done that, there was no way they could have helped anyone, with no supplies themselves. 

It was haunting though. People, alone in their houses, dying. Hearing them walk outside, too weak to call out for help that they couldn’t have provided anyway. 

They were a rock band. If they had to die early, they were supposed to go out in a blaze of glory. They weren’t supposed to be the ones left behind, in whatever this was. 

He wanted his mum. It was childish, and he didn’t care. But he wanted her desperately, to sit by him and pat his hand and reassure him that even if there were survivors out there, they were alright without him trying to stumble to provide them care. That he wasn’t terrible for wishing that all the nameless others would just be peacefully dead, rather than in pain and scared and alone. 

The door rattled, and he shook his head. “Only the wind.” 

It rattled on and off for the rest of his hour, and any fears he had of falling asleep while on watch disappeared.

\---

John rubbed at his eyes and yawned as Roger woke him for his turn. He rifled through the house as Roger settled in by the other lads. 

Not to be nosy, but because it was comforting. Amongst all the rubble and destruction, here was some normalcy. The warm colors of the decor, familiar from dinners they’d spent with Freddie and his family. Knick-knacks that he’d asked Freddie’s mum about at least a dozen times before, but that he would love to hear about again. 

So long as she was okay. And Freddie’s dad, and sister. 

Eventually, he knew he would need to face what he was struggling to now. That Ronnie, Robert, and Michael might not be okay. More than not okay...dead. Maybe under another pile of refuse they’d passed, or laying on the side of a road they had yet to go down. If they were still alive, how was Veronica managing? Two little ones, all on her own...to do that in normal times was one thing, but post-apparent-apocalypse? That was another. Had there been enough food and supplies to gather? Was she struggling to transport them? How scared must they be, and what could she say to calm children so young?

Worse yet was the admittedly more selfish weight: that if they were dead, he was technically no longer a husband and father. It wasn’t as if that was all he was, of course, but he loved those roles dearly. He liked being married, liked having little ones underfoot and smiling whenever he came home. It was just as, if not more, important than his being a bassist, or his being anything else, for that matter. 

“Lord, if you’ve got them,” he managed to whisper, once he peeked into the sitting room to ensure everyone else was deeply asleep. “Tell them I love them. And I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect them. I’d trade myself for them right now, if I could.” 

For the rest of his hour, he tried to keep from crying too loud. He didn’t hate the idea of crying in front of the guys, but they were all stressed and scared, and he didn’t want to add to it with this. 

\---

“You alright?” Brian mumbled sleepily as John shook his shoulder. He was sniffling, and his eyes looked red, but he didn’t reply as he took Brian’s spot on the floor. 

Brian shrugged, and scooted to a point of the floor where he could see the front door. It made him nervous, if only because it couldn’t be locked. Granted, he knew very well that if someone really wanted in, they would find a way in. 

But they didn’t need anything else to go wrong. Not right now. 

He let himself stand and peer out one of the windows in the kitchen, trying to see as much of the night sky as he could. In part because it would comfort him, but also because he wanted to see if there were any signs.

Mind, he wasn’t sure exactly what he was looking for, aside from anything odd or out of the usual. Anything that might tell him what exactly had happened, might give him a clue on what side effects they should prepare to deal with, if any. 

“That’s asking too much of you, isn’t it?” he murmured to the sky as he looked up to it. “But you’ve held answers before. Be great if you could give me some right now.” 

The sky, ever silent, remained so. 

He made his way back to the sitting room, and tried to rest. He might not be able to sleep, but he could at least let his muscles relax. Who knew how long they might be walking tomorrow, or if they would find any shelter. 

The door rattled loudly, and he looked to it. 

The wind. Nothing more. 

It shook, and he stood. 

A storm, perhaps. 

The couch in front of it was rocked as someone pushed at the door, and he shook everyone else awake. 

“We have to go!” 

They went out of the back door that led to the garden. 

Freddie handed out bags as they moved, and they swiped whatever they could grab from the kitchen as they ran out. There was no time to grab anything that could hold water, or to take anything else aside from the few knick-knacks John shoved in his bag, handing a couple more to Freddie as he grabbed them off of their shelves and tables of display. 

Had it been a different time, a different day, a different situation, they probably would have looked back. 

But they didn’t, and they would never know who it was that had forced their way into the house. 

\---

“Can we talk, at least?” Roger asked as they walked. The sun was high above them, and their bags of various food and scavenged supplies rustled as they walked. 

They had not stopped for more than a moment since fleeing Freddie’s parents’ house the night before. 

“I can’t stand how quiet it is,” Roger continued. “There should be sound. But there isn’t. They’re all dead, and we’re it, for sound. Just us, ha! Let’s see someone write a bad review about us now.” 

His words were joking, but his voice shook, and tears rained down his face. 

“It’s okay,” Freddie soothed, and let Brian take the lead spot as he moved back to walk by Roger, an arm wrapping around him to pull him as close as possible. “When we find others, there’ll be plenty of noise. We’ll be sick of it in a day, I bet!” 

“What if we don’t find anyone?” Roger whispered. “We should have found someone by now. Or bodies, at least.” 

“I don’t know,” Freddie admitted. “I...” 

He sighed. “I want to think we’ll find someone, at some point. Even if it is just bodies. But we’ll find someone, something. Proof of what happened, so we can figure out what to do next, how to find our families. Then it’ll be loud; all of us and our families together. They’ll hear us before they see us, wherever we go.” 

He could tell it wasn’t doing much for Roger, but at least talking, noise, seemed to calm him, and to make the tears stop. He didn’t want to babble, so he hummed instead, any tune that came into his head, as he kept Roger close. 

“We need to find water again,” Brian muttered. “And we should stop and eat.” 

“How are we going to prepare anything?” John asked. “Use the nearest car on fire as a stove top?” 

“Not a bad idea,” Brian replied. “Plenty of those about. But no damned water...” 

He didn’t even know what direction to take them in. He knew Freddie hadn’t known either, and was guessing as much as he was, in regards to where to walk next. 

But the terror of having that responsibility in front of him warped the view of the street, made him want to stop and sit and stay put until someone else found them, who might know the right way to go. 

“Keep going,” John murmured. Behind them, Freddie was helping Roger along still. “If we stop now, we won’t get started again. You’re doing fine. Just keep walking.” 

He focused on the sound of their footsteps behind him, and less on the direction forward. It was all likely the same anyway. 

\---

By the time the sun had gone down, they were nearly to the countryside, and the city felt wrung dry. 

No more supplies to be had. No more food, or containers for water. The multiple bags and containers they’d accumulated provided a symphony of background noise as they walked. 

But no corpses. Not even in the houses they’d checked. 

No family, either, for any of them. If they were alive, and out there...they were who knew where by now. 

Brian stopped now, and turned to them. “Well?” 

“Well, what?” John asked. 

“Do we leave the city?” Brian continued. “I mean...there’s no one here that we can find. But where do we go if we leave, and why?” 

“We go forward,” Freddie replied softly. “Because we can.” 

Roger had settled noticeably as they’d continued forth, and he nodded in agreement. “Because what else are we going to do?” 

“Because maybe our families escaped the city before we even knew anything was wrong,” John added. “We can’t know for sure. But we can’t know anything for sure right now. May as well try something and just...do it.” 

“We need to sleep though,” Brian said. 

“True,” Freddie said. “I have a feeling we can rest right here, if we want. I don’t think we’ll be bothered.” 

“How do you know that?” Brian asked, though he followed suit and sat by Freddie on the sidewalk. 

“I don’t,” he said. “Not for certain. But I sense it. We’ll be okay, for tonight.” 

The burned out car in front of them was shelter enough, even if there was no way to open up the doors and actually rest inside it, and the many blankets they had gathered as they’d traveled became a makeshift bed on the ground. 

True to Freddie’s word, no one bothered them as they snuggled together and slept, packs and bags close enough to grab if they should have to run. 

But they didn’t hear the footsteps that went by, and paid them no mind. 


End file.
